Your thoughts on 'Doubleshot' (2000)

I'd love to hear James Bond fan opinion on Raymond Benson's fourth Bond novel Doubleshot (2000):
did it go too far in its experimentation and in its presentation of the literary James Bond character created by Ian Fleming? Is it the The Spy Who Loved Me and The Man From Barbarossa of the Benson books? Your thoughts on this novel are much appreciated by this writer of articles.

Are there any elements of the 'locked room mystery' (made famous by John Dickson Carr) in Doubleshot?

Also, your thoughts on Doubleshot as a title - I remember saying to some friends in 1999 on learning of the new title through correspondence with Raymond Benson himself that that was the title - they said that it was not very impressive for the title of a James Bond novel. Benson originally favoured Reflections in a Broken Glass and Doppelganger as alternative titles - very much influenced by the first chapter of Goldfinger and the original title for '007 in New York', although sadly his own original title was denied him.

A quote from Kirkus Reviews on Doubleshot on 1 May 2000 to get the ball rolling:

"The creakiest exercise yet in American Bond fan Benson's postmodern resurrection of Ian Fleming's peerless killer spy, has an embarrassingly witless 007 going rogue to fight a dastardly multinational crime cartel.

Nifty bullfighting scenes do not redeem an otherwise cliché-cluttered narrative. For die-hard fans only."

Any interest in this one? I'd really love to hear your views on Doubleshot.

Was it inspired by John Gardner's Understrike (1965), which also had a doppelganger plot with an assassin made up to look like Boysie Oakes.

I like this book!

Arguably his weakest Bond effort, either this or Red Tattoo, what we have is a great concept meant to shake things up and make for a different novel. However, everything is made to simply tie itself up and ultimately loses any of the nervous energy the notion of a 007 gone mad and rogue established.

It stops itself before it really gets going to be honest. Which is a problem that happens in Facts of Death, where there is great setup, a fleshed out villain and sub-villain, a good plot, the girl, the locale and now that we're cooking...it's over.

British Vulture wrote:

I like this book!

Deepest reflections on a book I've ever read.

Walecs wrote:

British Vulture wrote:

I like this book!

Deepest reflections on a book I've ever read.

Indeed. I can explain the brevity of his book reviews. This member is a fraud who attacked me over on AJB. I would suggest a ban/removal as he had the same details as I did on my profile. He/she posts in threads of mine to try and make me curious as to who he is. As duplicate accounts/impersonating other members is taken so seriously here, I request the removal of this joker who stated he was a member here. He also set up a duplicate account on AJB under the same name. He clearly has a problem with me.